AT the top, as opposed to ON top. You can't really be there if you aren't Italian, at least not in that organization. Mr. Lansky was a genius, no doubt, knew how yo make money and what to do with it afterwards. He earned. Bigtime. But you never heard of "The Lansky Family" did you? He wasn't Sicilian...not even Italian. They might heed his advice and hold him in a high degree of regard, but...

Quoted for truth.

If push came to shove, he'd have been outta there. He wasn't family and blood is thicker than water. At least it was then.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Staropramen

But isn't that the way Jews operate, in the shadows and out of sight like President Emanuel, for example?

Sure, but he had influence, not power and knew his place and functioned within it.

I really should have more sense, wading into such a divisive topic. But then again, nobody's really scienced this issue out yet to my satisfaction, so here goes.

It's important to differentiate between causes and effect here, and to place things in their proper context. In a healthy, sane society, these issues of sex simply are not problems. And part of having a healthy, sane society is recognizing reality and not making things worse by trying to legislate your own religious values and morality onto others.

Prostitution is called the world's oldest profession, and with good reason. Trying to legislate it out of existence is simply not realistic. There will always be those who wish to make money selling their bodies, and there will always be willing buyers of their services.

Porn falls along those same lines.

But people who come from good genes and good upbringing will only rarely grow up with sexual perversions and fetishes. That these sexual problems are so prevalent today seems to spring from a culture that continually glorifies sex, while promoting ideals and legislation that prevents certain individuals from ever experiencing any great satisfaction in that area. Perversions are a common result, as these people are being pulled in opposite directions. None of this is what I would call the result of a healthy, sane approach to sex.

I find it ironic that many who would want to pass legislation preventing consenting adults from doing what they choose to do behind closed doors, are many of the same ones that allow their children to be indoctrinated into a culture of sexual obsession on a daily basis, thanks to the cable and network TV programming. And then send them off to schools, where the programming is even so much worse. And then telling your kids, this is the stuff of Satan, you will burn in eternal hell for thinking these things.

It's a horrible situation, first bringing these children up to obsess over sex. Then limiting what they can do to gratify these essentially unnatural and unhealthy desires.

No, I didn't say desire for the opposite sex is unnatural. But the way children today are raised sure is. It all but ensures that many of us will grow up obsessed with desires that can not be satisfied. Just another good reason NOT TO ALLOW TV PROGRAMMING IN YOUR HOME. Period.

And if you love your children, don't send them to public schools.

So recognize the source of these problems. It's not healthy adults satisfying their natural desires so much as the competing interests I described above. And as it has been widely discussed already, the way the media goes about imposing values that can only result in perversion, immorality, and declining values hardly seems to be an accident.